What was the first computer acronym you learned?

[KGIII]

I'm old. I also got my start with computers a long time ago. I first touched a programmable computer in the very early 70s.

I got to thinking... (I probably shouldn't do that.)

The instructor had to get special training because, of course, they had no idea what they were doing. They did fairly well but they were overly fond of saying "GIGO".

See, we didn't have a bunch of jargon and acronyms back then. GIGO simply means, "Garbage In, Garbage Out". So, if you input garbage you'll get garbage back out the other side.

That acronym appears to be about as old as I am.

Garbage in, garbage out - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I think my next would have been TTY but my memory of that is a bit fuzzy.

 

[Brickwizard]

I remember that as RIRO [rubbish in rubbish out]

Probably the first i remember was BASIC Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, there were many versions mine was IBM

 

[KGIII]

Probably the first i remember was BASIC

I hadn't learned that yet. I'd later use DEC PDP-11 BASIC quite a bit, among others. For reasons explained elsewhere, I spent a lot of time with DEC gear.

 

[Aristarchus]

ALGOL, VAX

 

[KGIII]

ALGOL, VAX

As a DEC fan, I approve!

 

[theLegionWithin]

DOS (msdos 5, specifically)

 

[f33dm3bits]

PC and CD

 

[Fanboi]

Assuming we're only talking tech...
With great shame: MS and DOS, more specifically MSDOS.
I was taught words like "processor" and "memory" instead of CPU and RAM, lol.

Otherwise, outside tech: STFU, courtesy of my uncle, who would frequently tell me to do exactly this... I don't think it ever sank in too well.

 

[KGIII]

Assuming we're only talking tech...

Well, the title does say 'computer acronym'. So, yeah...

 

[Fanboi]

Well, the title does say 'computer acronym'. So, yeah...

Not sure why I read it as "What was the first acronym you learned".

 

[KGIII]

Not sure why I read it as "What was the first acronym you learned".

It's all good. I'd be a liar if I said I never misread something and then responded to what I thought something said. That's usually a good sign to take things a bit slower (at least for me).

 

[MikeRocor]

I think I knew what "GIGO" meant long before I knew anything else about computers. I never touched a (general purpose) computer (not withstanding a programmable TI-55 calculator) until about 1981 when I took a intro to computers course at university. In those days, "Intro to Computers" was a programming class (BASIC), not "fundamentals of keyboarding" or the like. So I suppose "BASIC" was the second computer acronym I learned and the first I can really put a date on.

 

[KGIII]

In those days, "Intro to Computers" was a programming class (BASIC), not "fundamentals of keyboarding" or the like.

Yeah, there was a higher barrier to entry back then. You had to know a lot more to use a computer back then. There wasn't really a ton of software that was easily available, as compared to today. Software was also fairly expensive back then, though there were BBSes that were 'warez' dumps around that time.

Phone calls were also expensive, but there might have been ways around that. I suppose the statute of limitations has run its course but I rented an apartment above a bar. Said bar had a couple of pay phones in it. There was a walkway that ran behind those phones. So, I'll let you color in the rest. We could also access a bunch of stuff from the school.

As an aside, I also worked at the bar. I was a bouncer. It was a dive bar so it was an interesting job. I only worked a couple of nights each week so I'd also make some money at the pool tables or the card game in the back room.

My only formal computer education was taking a class to learn C programming. I learned BASIC from a book and from seeing code examples. There were magazines back then that had code in them. I'd say that 50% of the time those didn't work - and half of that was because I mistyped something or because they mistyped something. Deciding who was at fault was always a bit of a chore. Fixing it was also a chore.

 

[MikeRocor]

One of the C64 related magazines would publish programs printed in hex with embedded checksums so you could use their data entry program (which you had to type in) and it would alert you to typos after every line. Tedious, but it worked.

When I learned BASIC in college, I didn't have a computer of my own but I was hooked. After I dropped out of college, I bought a computer to help keep my programming skills from fading away... and even to this day I have a 16KB RAM pack for the Timex 1000 floating around the house, though I doubt the computer itself is still around.

 

[Brickwizard]

this day I have a 16KB RAM pack for the Timex 1000 floating around the house, though I doubt the computer itself is still around.

Yes I still have a ZX80 in the cupboard, it is what put me off programming, I was ill with a back injury and confined to bed, so to save boredom I got out my book of programs for the ZX80 and spent around 12 hrs copying the hexidec for a game, at the end I tried to boot it, and nothing, then spent 3 more days trying to find why, and never did, so there must have been an error in the type set of the book. That was it, I picked up a screwdriver and became a hardware man and have spent most of my hobby time [up to retiring] screwdriver in hand and a big box of spare parts next to me.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

PC and CD

I couldn't recall what was first acronym I heard of but PC and CD are most likely the very first as well.

 

[Brickwizard]

Of course there is the old favourite that applies to anything electrical/mechanical including computers which we try not to use,

RTFM

 

[GatorsFan]

IBCAK error - In Between Chair and Keyboard, next was BSOD - Blue Screen of Death when I was in Air Force back in the early 1990s there was the OIM error - Operator Induced Malfunction

 

[Hillbilly H]

Ram,GB,MB

"Garbage In, Garbage Out"

And that problem still exists today. LOL

 

[MikeRocor]

Yes I still have a ZX80 in the cupboard, it is what put me off programming, I was ill with a back injury and confined to bed, so to save boredom I got out my book of programs for the ZX80 and spent around 12 hrs copying the hexidec for a game, at the end I tried to boot it, and nothing, then spent 3 more days trying to find why, and never did, so there must have been an error in the type set of the book. That was it, I picked up a screwdriver and became a hardware man and have spent most of my hobby time [up to retiring] screwdriver in hand and a big box of spare parts next to me.

I tried to "Learn Z80 Assembly Language on the Timex Sinclair 1000" and that led me to a couple of "screwdrivers" - but then I ran out of orange juice! At that point in time, I wasn't ready for assembly language and the Timex certainly wasn't the machine on which to learn it. Just a few years later, I did learn Z80 assembly (and loved it) on an Ampro LittleBoard 1B which is high on my list of favorite computers I've ever owned.

Speaking of that, and getting back on topic: CP/M was a great acronym